Sui Generis
by Rata
Summary: An unusual murder told from an unusual point of view-FINISHED-
1. The crime is not the point

DISCLAIMER: Not mine and I don´t mean any harm by taking them.  
  
AUTHOR´S NOTE: So this might seem a little weird at first, just bear with me, I´m trying to actually see things differently here. If it´s way to confusing then I´ll fix it and all, but I hope it´s not. All will be explained in the end so if you feel a little confused, then I actually feel good about it, I love confusion..As always, all comments are very much welcome, constructive criticism is the only way in which we grow and friendly comments always make me feel good...anyways, enough rambling on my part.  
  
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The windows were cracking. It took me a moment to figure out if it was from rain of just from the morning sun. It was the rain, but an odd rain. It almost looked like there were no clouds in the sky and just across the street the sun was shinning brightly. The gods must have a sense of humor, and if not them, certainly life. I would of loved to figure out the weather, but more pressing problems needed my attention, like the bodies, and the clean-up.  
  
Now, we weren´t born killers. At least I sure as hell wasn´t! Still, it´s just like Aristlotle said, we´re only as much as our actions take us to be, but we are potencially everything concievable proper to us. Every human being is a potential killer, doesn´t mean all of us are, but it means that some of us will be and that, definately, all of us can be. The thought had creeped me out at first, but I became comfortable with it as soon as I realised what it really meant. We all knew what we were doing, we were proving a point. The moral and ethical implications didn´t matter, what mattered was the point. In the end, we were only the sum of our potential turned into actions. Mr. Finniger had thought it was a brilliant idea for an essay, until of course we killed him, but that is of little consecuence.  
  
The fact that we killed him seemed not to matter. Neither him nor the others were important anymore. They served to prove our, very aristotelic, point. Besides they had it coming, you cannot preach to the choir and then turn your back on everything you´ve been spitting out. In a way, I think we all felt like we´d actually done a service to humanity. All these people were dead and they would be remembered like good people, not like the ones who betrayed us all. I was thinking about this as I cleaned up. There was so much blood, it was hard work, it took us nearly three hours to finish up, but we had no choice. We´d committed a crime, at least according to society, and we didn´t want to get caught. We were only proving a point. A simple one really. It was really rather brilliant on our part.  
  
The rain, it helped. By the time we were done, it was pouring. Bobby said that it would help. He was the genius mind in the scientific part behind this. He´d done all the research about how not to get caught committing a crime. We were covered, there was barely any evidence, and we´d been EXTREMELY carefull so we wouldn´t be placed near the house all that day. The rain helped. It made it hard to make out who was out on the street. I felt it hit me, cold and hard as Bobby and I walked away, out the back door. Tom and Megan climbed up to the roof and jumped over to the next building. I´m not sure were they went from there.  
  
Bobby and I walked in silence. We were both thinking about what we´d done. A part of us felt guilty, of course. Mr. Finniger had been our teacher, he´d been a lot like a father to all of us really, it was a shame it had all come to this. I remember the extra weight I was carrying around was bothering me. We all knew we´d leave footprints, so we all whore bigger shoes than normal and added extra weight to ourselves, I was carrying about twenty pounds more than normal and it was starting to bother me. As soon as we were in the car, five blocks away, I started taking it all off. Bobby watched me, very amused. I´d always liked Bobby but it had never actually gone anywhere. It killed me whenever he looked at me like that, almost staring, as if there was nothing else in the world at that moment. I ignored him, when that didn´t work, I told him to stop it. He chuckled and turned the car on, and we drove off.  
  
The drive back to my place was long. The rain was so bad that traffic was almost stopped everywhere in the city. I was wet and cold, I just hoped I wouldn´t get a cold out of all of this. I couldn´t get sick, I needed to study for my final exams and I had three essays to prepare that weekend. I couldn´t afford to get sick. I looked over at Bobby, he looked a little pale. I asked him if he was O.K. He said he was fine, just feeling a little guilty. I knew how he felt, it´s not like I was born without a conscience. We talked about it. We´re good at that, talking about stuff, specially personal stuff, but it never led anywhere. By the time we got to my place, we were both feeling a little better, like we needed a good night´s sleep, but we both knew it was not meant to be. We climbed up to my appartment, changed clothes and got some dinner. We both had too much schoolwork to go to bed any earlier than three o´clock in the morning. The next morning we were so tired we had practically forgotten about Mr. Finniger. For a second, we didn´t even have to fake surprise when we were told about it.  
  
It was a Saturday. Normally, people rest on Saturdays, not us. We had a lot of schoolwork. Bobby was staying at my place so it was cluttered with double the books it usually would have been. In order for our alibies to work and not be too suspicious (because it was inevitable, we would be suspects, we were his students, after all), Bobby had come over to stay with me and he´d told his landlady he´d be out of town. Whoever was working the case would eventually find out Bobby was actually at my place and would draw the logical conclusion from there. I would be a little vague about my whereabouts, then come clean and admit that I was leaving with Bobby for the weekend but the rain held us up. It was perfect. The rain helped. It made the aliby plausible enough to be believable. Megan was actually supposed to be at a dinner party with her parents, who of course had not noticed her sneaking out for four hours; Tom had stayed at home. He lived alone, in a floor were the only other tenant was out of town, no one could actually say for sure Tom had left his appartment.  
  
The alibies were not perfect, but we were counting on the fact that we hadn´t left much evidence to begin with, if the evidence couldn´t really place us at the crime scene, then we couldn´t actually be arrested. We´d killed Mr. Finniger out of town, Sara in an abandoned building on the other side of town. Mr. Andrews had been tricky, he needed to be shot. It was hell picking out the place, but we finally did. Megan´s parents have a huge house about two hours out of town, they have this really nice recording room. It is completely sound proof. We´d simply taken Mr. Andrews up there a week before, kept him for two days, waited until Megan´s big party and had dissapeared for five minutes to go shoot the poor man. It was actually amazing no one had noticed he was gone, he didn´t have much of a life, he didn´t even have a cat.  
  
If I were completely honest, killing them was the easy part. The rest was the hard part. Actually being conscious of leaving as little evidence at possible was hard, so was actually the planning. We had wanted to make a point, but we didn´t really want to be too obvious. We felt like hunters, mighty hunters, just trying to find the best way to get at our prey. I think we were all reasonably satisfied, whoever worked the case would need to really get acquainted with at least a little bit of Greek culture and philosophy, but it wouldn´t be a big leap, I mean Mr. Finniger was the Greek and Roman philosphy teacher at school! We´d left enough clues so that they would know we had a point. It made no sense to actually go through all this trouble only to leave it to the free imagination of some uneducated detective. No, they would need to think about this one. This pleased me, I didn´t like being to obvious in anything I did. Life is full of causes, and we must make at least the very smallest effort to try to understand them, that way, we can actually know all the effects (which make up our lives) a little better. 


	2. First explanations

DISCLAIMER: Not mine, I mean no harm in taking ´em.  
  
A/N: I was glad to read the comments, good to know I´m not all that confusing. As for the question, no "Bobby" is another character, but he will be parallel to that of Robert Goren (I love parallel character´s too), but they are not the same. This part is from another POV, hopefully it´ll be as clear as before. The part of the bible mentioned is Genesis 10:8-10, just in case someone feels like checking it out.  
  
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Robert Goren. There´s a man who can boggle a mind. He is so many things and yet lacks so many others. In my mind, he´s always been the "inevitability of humanity", he is human, not like so many others, who are just pretending to be men. I first met him about two years ago. I was doing some volunteer nurse work and I had played "rock-paper-scissors" with a friend of mine to see who got the "Goren-Woman" down the hall, the one with the bipolar roomate and freaky son...I lost. I can´t say I was very happy about it, dealing with the patients is hard enough, not to mention the family members. I also had the disadvantage of being a volunteer not an actual nurse, this usually worked out so that family members trusted me even less and patients treated me without respect. I was really dreading the whole experience, there wasn´t anybody who hadn´t heard about the "freaky son". I was surprised no one ever called him by his name, he was just the "freaky son". In any case, I accepted my fate with resignation and got to work.  
  
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that while the mother may have a weird son, she herself is not so far from normal. I liked her, even got to know her and eventually really respect her. By the end of three weeks, I was actually glad I´d lost that game which landed me this room! It wasn´t until my sixth week when I actually met the famous son. I was covering for a friend of mine and seeing how I was done a little early I actually went up to visit Mrs. Goren. I was having difficulties with my philosophy class and had a big test coming up. She managed to somehow calm me down. She asked me to tell her about all I had to study. At first it felt weird, I didn´t really understand the subject very well and wasn´t sure I could explain it to someone else, but it soon turned more into a session of bouncing ideas off her than actually explaining anything to her. It helped me see were I was having difficulties and I even got a sense of how to solve my problems. I didn´t even realize I had been sitting there for nearly three hours when the door suddenly opened.  
  
The person behind the door was Robert Goren, the famous "freaky son". He stopped dead in his tracks, obviously surprised to see me there. I felt as if I was intruding all of a sudden. Mrs. Goren seemed not to notice, she simply hurried her son into the room and continued our conversation as if there had been no interruption, trying to get her son to participate in it as well. Eventually all her efforts payed off and her son started throwing an opinion here and there, I didn´t really want to counter them, but every time I tried to end it, Mrs. Goren started it again. That first meeting didn´t really amount to much, aside from throwing a couple of opinions of philosophy, Robert Goren only mumbled his intruduction and his goodbyes. When I was finally allowed to leave the room I was actually grateful. I didn´t see him again until two weeks later.  
  
I was working late again, but this time very carefully avoiding Mrs. Goren´s room. I was walking down the hall, not paying attention when I heard someone call my name. I turned around and it was Robert Goren. I didn´t know what to say or do, all I could think to do was to avoid the man, I didn´t really know him, but I had begun to understad why everyone refered to him as "freaky". I had no choice, I let him catch up to me. It was weird, very weird, he remembered our conversation from two weeks before and had actually taken the time to do some research. He found a book which might help me clear things up a bit. It was surreal. A perfect stranger had gone out of his way to help me, a volunteer who, for all he knew, had been meddling in things that should not be meddled in. It shocked me, it was my turn to mutter. I thanked him and headed home. Curiousity got the better of me and I did read the book and it did actually help. I returned it and thanked him properly.  
  
From then on whenever I ran into him (which wasn´t as often as you´d think) we managed to have civil conversations. It slowly turned into friendly conversations and soon enough we did have some sort of friendship going on. He held bits and pieces of information on everything, he could actually hold up a discussion on difficult subjects and he was usually right. The fact that we got along didn´t go unnoticed and I was soon asked to take over the shift in which he usually came in. This time I agreed happily. It helped to have someone to bounce ideas off (since Mrs. Goren wasn´t always available for that sort of activity). That was two years ago, I was just out of high school and hadn´t really decided what to study, now, I´m in the philosophy department. I have a nack for it apparently, once I was able to understand it. I´m even teaching now, not very complicated classes, just the introduction, and I am more of a teaching assistant than a teacher, but it works. Goren even says I know more useless information now than he does.  
  
And that brings me to the reason why I´m involved in the case. It was pretty horrid. Three murders, two men and a woman. The woman, Sara Smith, was hung, the older man, Mr. Andrews, shot and left outside the house, and the other one, Mr. Finniger, was poisoned and had his eyes gouged out by a brooch the woman was wearing. It all sounded awfully familiar, but I couldn´t really bring myself to believe it. Goren came to me because he suspected the same thing I did but he said I would probably understand the killer´s point a lot better than he could. He could understand the psychology behind the killings, he didn´t understand the philosophical point that was being made (or so he said). He called me up, told me the basics and I was shocked, fascinated in a sick kind of way, but very shocked. I agreed to help, but I guaranteed nothing, I didn´t know half as much as other people after all. Goren insisted, so even though I didn´t really feel I could actually contribute to the case, I decided to help out.  
  
The three murders all had a purpose. They had seemed so shockingly familiar because they had actually happened before, only not exactly as murders. A woman hung, a man with eyes gouged out and another one dead at a crossroad (he was left on the steps of the house, which stood in the corner), I was looking at a strange reenactment of Oedipus. I was beyond surprised, because this meant the killer must have a point, right? It was VERY improbable that the killer committed the murders and just happened to leave it all out so it resembled the only perfect tragedy ever written! There were more clues though, and that was were it all got confusing.  
  
There was apparently little or no evidence of the killer. Not only had the house been cleaned, it was sterilized. No forenscic evidence and no witnesses. The victims hadn´t been killed in the house, nor had they been killed at the same time. Mr. Andrews was an old teacher of Mr. Finniger, and Sara was one of Mr. Finniger´s students, still the connection had to be deeper than that to warrant such a dramatic stage of the bodies. All this didn´t concern me, but it was important for me to understand it if I was to try and help.  
  
The part that concerned me were the clues. The bodies were representing a greek tragedy, there had been very low music playing, only one track, over and over and over. It was an instrumental song, but Goren had no idea where it came from or what it meant. There were also some strange symbols carved on the floor next to an open "American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language" (from 1976). There were also two abreviations written in blood on a wall, "Q.E.D." and "Q.E.F.". It was a whole lot of clues and it did warrant a lot of thinking. Right from the start I was able to figure out some of the clues (that didn´t mean, of course, Goren didn´t already know).  
  
Because of the nature of the case, I was only allowed to work as a consultant and it had to be at the Police Station. I was in school all morning and worked part of the afternoon so the only time I could come by was after six. It didn´t matter, both Goren and his partner were there every single day I came in. I had never met Goren´s partner, but I had heard about her. She´d heard about me too, not too much though. It figured, Goren wasn´t really the kind to go on and on about his life of the people in it. I liked her, she was smart. She wasn´t a body full of useless knowledge, but she wasn´t the stereotypical uneducated detective. She participated in every single discussion inteligently. She also shot back a lot of comments with sarcasm and a dark sense of humor, I liked her. I did the same thing. It was still hard work and I had to really burn a fuse to piece it together.  
  
When I came in the first day and was presented with all the evidence, somethings stuck out and seemed very obvious. The music, (which at that moment was still unidentified, which made me feel, temporarily, like a real genius for beating Goren to something) was the first thing I wanted to work on. I didn´t work on it very hard, as soon as it started playing I knew what it was. I looked at Goren, half expecting for this to be a joke.  
  
"You´re kidding right?" I asked him. He looked up at me, somewhat  
confused.  
  
"No...why?"  
  
I smiled, I had him, "I know this song and it makes this case a lot  
more complex."  
  
He looked at me expectantly. His partner looked at me too. I didn´t hold them in suspense too long, after all, it was a murder investigation, "Green Day".  
  
They both stared at me. I rolled my eyes, I couldn´t help it. "Right...not you´re generation, not your thing..the band," they still didn´t respond, "fine...Last Ride In, by GreenDay. It´s from the album Nimrod." This made Goren´s mind start reeling. I could see it in his eyes. His partner seemed to almost recognize something, but wasn´t sure.  
  
"Genesis," he clarified after a second or two, "Noah´s great-grandson, Nimrod. A great king and...hunter."  
  
At that moment Goren and Eames went off on a discussion about the probable profile of the killer. I don´t care much for psychology, some of the greatest minds in history were very troubled minds and if psychology had had it it´s way, they would of never revealed their full potential and would of most likely been smothered. I went back to my work, this was getting interesting, there was a point to be made, and an author. This was not someone who was shy about what had been done. The music being solved, I turned to something which I hoped was more complex, the symbols carved on the floor. It was no mistery, the dictionary next to it was open to the letter "H", right under the big print were a set of symbols, letters to be more precise, kinda like a sumarized version of the evolution of that letter. The symbols were letters, phoenician letters, as Goren clarified. N.I.K.E.  
  
"Not like the shoe mark I take it." I commented. Goren nodded, he was off on his profile though. It was up to his partner to explain, although I already knew the answer.  
  
"Nike. The greek goddess of victory. Our killer had some ego on him."  
  
"You think so?" I shot back. It was a retorical question. She smiled, Goren ignored us. I went back to work. The letters in blood were harder. Goren knew, but I didn´t want him to tell me, I wanted to at least try and solve it. It took me about an hour, while Goren and Eames went to talk to some of Mr. Finniger´s students, whose aliby wasn´t really clear or something like that...I did get it in the end. It was latin, "Q.E.D." quod erat demostrandum, which was to be proved; "Q.E.F." quod erat faciendum, which was to be done. This complicated things, there was something to be proved and something to be done, but what? It was at this point that everything slowed down. Goren had racked his brains, Eames had been researching for five hours and I sat there, feeling like the answer was just out of reach. 


	3. Almost in the clear

DISCLAMIER: Not mine, I mean no harm in taking them.  
  
A/N: Thanks for all the nice reviews! (they really help my ego along...) I hope you keep liking the story, sorry if this chapter is a bit of a mess but inspiration hit me at a god-awful time and I am VERY sleepy. Any mistakes please let me know and I will be happy to correct them, comments and reviews (good or bad) are always welcome. Now I´ll go and leave you to read in peace.  
  
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I´d never been in a police station before. It didn´t really surprise me. It was a mess, desks, papers and people...lots and lots of people, everywhere. Bobby found it actually quite fascinating. We´d come in together, in part because he was already there and in part to keep up the ilusion that we´d done anything other than prepare a crime scene the day before. Tom said he´d be there in about half an hour and Megan...who knew where she was? Her cellphone wasn´t on, she was probably still asleep, she did that a lot. Sleep I mean.  
  
I got out of the elevator first (Bobby being a gentleman and all he always let me go first). It took us a while to actually get anybody´s attention. It was weird really, you´d think someone coming to talk about a murder case would be better received...oh well, it was their loss and our gain. I wasn´t so nervous anymore, I just wanted to get it all over and done with. I needed to get back to work, I hadn´t made any progress with my essays and I didn´t like the idea of being stuck inside some ugly offices while I could be doing something about my schoolwork. Bobby hadn´t said much since last night, I guess he was still in shock. Actually it made me question my sanity just a little, I didn´t feel all that guilty. I felt bad because I had liked Mr. Finniger and Mr. Andrews never did anything to me personally, I can´t say I felt that bad about Sara, I never liked her much.  
  
I was very releived when someone finally noticed us. People are curious creatures, Bobby and I might as well have of been invisible, until we uttered the words "murder" and "information" in the same sentence, then everyone wanted to talk to us. In the end we were put in a little grey room, since we weren´t suspects (not yet anyways), Bobby and I were put in the same room. We must´ve sat there for nearly ten minutes before someone came in. It was not what either of us expected.  
  
While we waited though, Bobby did say some things. We made small talk, I knew something was bothering him but he probably couldn´t say anything while we were at the police station. I am a patient person, so I knew I could go for a while without hearing about it. We quietly went over our alibi one more time. It was a big risk we took talking about it right there and then, but then again so was killing three people! Still, all of that only took us about three minutes, so Bobby went off on some useless knowledge he´d picked up that morning while looking through the dictionary. He´s weird that way, he likes to accumulate information and yet, he doesn´t really talk much, unless it´s something he wants to understand or has the answer too, then he just goes on and on, not bothering to notice if the rest of the world even has a notion of what he´s talking about. He was doing that now. He was saying something about how the Roman Empire had started absorbing the greek culture. I wasn´t paying too much attention, we´d already covered that in Mr. Finniger´s class (before his untimely death obivously). Bobby was just getting to the part were he moves his hands around a lot when the door opened and in walked two detectives. It was not what either of us expected.  
  
Detective Goren. Detective Eames. One look and I knew these two were going to do a better job on the case than most other detectives. They already seemed to have of figured out some of the clues, the music and the phonecian letters at least. That was one of the parts I liked the best, leaving all those clues, it was like making a little path with dominoes and then just pushing one...I loved the idea of someone else trying to figure out what goes on in the head of a killer. I laughed inwardly. If only they knew. It wasn´t one killer, it was four, and none of us had a history. That was part of the reason why we did it, we needed to prove a point, and it could only come across if we were the picture of normality (which we all were).  
  
It was still a little shocking. The investigation I mean. I was impressed by the work they´d already done. I asked them if they´d figured it out all on their own. The man, Detective Goren, smiled at me, but didn´t answer. His partner didn´t talk much, a comment here and there. They were just starting to feel us out, they might have of figured out some of the clues, but they had no idea who to look for. It was an entertaining hour. We talked about a lot of things, Mr. Finniger, his relationship to us, Mr. Andrews and Sara...Bobby and I lied through our teeth! The best part was, they had no idea. I only got nervous when they started pressing us a little about our alibi. As agreed, we weren´t really being clear about our whereabouts. Bobby surprised me, he just stared right back at the detective, answering him in the same pitch and tone as the man asking him questions. It was a strange moment, I looked at both of them and I swear that for a second they seemed almost like the same person.  
  
This struck me as something I´d have to get back to later on. I noticed they looked nothing alike, not enough to say they were the same anyways. They were both very tall, cleanshaven...but nothing that could really link them. It had to be the way they thought. It was amazing, there wasn´t one fact that Bobby knew that Detective Goren wasn´t familiar with as well. I was amazed, how many things had to come together for this to happen? Two minds that were exactly the same were coming against each other, it was all very nicely ironic. The amusment soon ended, both Bobby and Detective Goren were soon locked in some sort of battle to see who could quote more famous people. I decided this was the time to act, once again, just like with the rain before, life was actually helping us along. I put my hand on Bobby´s arm and told him to calm down. I knew this wouldn´t go unnoticed by either detectives. I also knew Bobby would understand.  
  
The rest of the interview focused on getting our alibies straight. As rehersed, Bobby and I were vague, then we let a comment slip here and there. I was impressed again, Detective Goren suddenly looked up at us and I knew he´d figured it out. He asked us if it was really necessary to be so secretive, a man was dead, and we were still lying about our whereabouts. I´m sure he meant to sound ambigiously threatening. Bobby and I played along, pretending to be nervous and finally told the "truth". It was great! They actually bought it...almost. I got the feeling neither of them really believed us, but that could be because they had no suspect, it was only natural they´d want to question everything they heard. I didn´t think much about it then, and I let it go. We both did.  
  
After that, the interview was pretty much over. We were asked about our relationship with all three vicitims yet again. I wondered why they were called victims in this case. They were part of the point, in fact, they were the point. They weren´t victims, they were elements, parts of our "thesis statement" that we were so bent on proving, besides, it wasn´t like they didn´t have it coming. The one who had a lesser part in the problem was poor Mr. Andrews...he was only partially involved. Sara and Mr. Finniger were another story. It wasn´t like they did something that made us want to kill them, it was more like what they did made us choose them as the ones who got to be killed. I guess on some level all four of us were taking revenge on them. They messed up all that Mr. Finniger had been teaching us about ethics, morality, all those times he´d said it would be wonderful to return to a simpler time, like with the greeks or romans. He told us about how great it must´ve been to have all of your boundries clearly marked and how liberating it must´ve seemed to know what was allowed and what wasn´t, then he went and did something so stupid...He broke it all. We figured since he taught us all these things with such passion, he´d be willing to at least try and live by them. We were so dissapointed. That´s why we chose him and Sara. They had to see. We, Bobby, Megan, Tom and I, are strong, we believe in something and we take it to it´s final consecuences. We believed in making our point, and we went out and killed for it. That´s commitment. That´s not backing down. That´s how determined we were.  
  
I was glad when we left (I felt even better about the fact that both Tom and Megan had arrived by the time we were done). The detectives had actually bought our stories. We were almost in the clear, all we had to do know was hope Tom and Megan´s alibies were good enough, then we just had to hope we hadn´t missed anything. I didn´t think so. Bobby didn´t either, he was the genius behind this. He made sure that we did everything so we minimized our chances of getting caught. When we were out of the police station he finally told me what was bothering him. He said he was nervous, what if they did figure it all out? He didn´t want to get caught. I asked him if he felt guilty. He said he didn´t feel to guilty...he just hated the thought of going to prison, he´d loose so much, like his books. I can´t say I wasn´t a little hurt at that. He helped plan, commit and cover up the murder of three people, if he got caught he was in serious trouble, and all he could worry about was loosing a few books? It hurt. It hurt that I came second to his books. I stormed off, leaving him with a confused look. He was so good at connecting the dots, he just had no tact for other people. I went straight home, tried to do some work. He came back to my place six hours later. When I asked him where he´d been he said nowhere. I rolled my eyes at him and let him in. We didn´t talk much the rest of the day. I was still hurt and he was thinking about something, but I didn´t know what. 


	4. The illusive point

DISCLAIMER: I don´t own ´em and I mean no harm by taking them.  
  
A/N: Thanks for all the nice comments! Now, I know I cut out dialogue in the last chapter and I did it on purpose, I just wanted to see how it worked out so I´m glad it was caught. In any case I did plan on getting more dialogue in but later on in the story, still that comment helped to put somethings in perspective (I mean, it all makes sense in -my head-, the problem is making it make sense to other people), so I really appreciated that comment. I´ll try to finish this soon but I make no promises, the end of the semester is upon me and I don´t have all that much time so check back but I´ll probably end it by the end of the month and no sooner. Thanks again.  
  
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"Oedipus".....Sophocles.....Hunter.....Victory...Proof...Action. "Oedipus".....Sophocles.....Hunter.....Victory...Proof...Action. "Oedipus"..... Sophocles.....Hunter.....Victory...Proof...Action. My thoughts circled around this for the next few days. It was hard to concentrate on anything else. I even forgot to feed the cat. It´s not that I get distracted, it´s just that I can´t stand to not understand something. I once stayed for six hours in the library just to understand one problem for my chemistry class. I think that´s the part where Goren and I connect. It´s all in understanding. I know it sounds like "a bit much" (as my little brother once put it), but I can´t help it, it´s in my nature.  
  
Nature or not, I still didn´t make much progress. It was complicated, and the fact that people´s lives might depend on all this was starting to get to me. I always wondered how Goren got through it. I´m still wondering. Goren is someone who is standing just outside the norm so even if I knew how he stands his work, I probably could not understand it. This thought, however, didn´t occupy much room in my mind as I was riding the elevator up to the uncomfortable chair that awaited me inside an uncomfortable room. The weight of my backpack was starting to bother me. I was carrying every single book I owned that even mentioned anything greek in it, I planned to let Goren go through them, maybe his "off centre" mind would pick something up.  
  
The elevator stopped and I stepped out. It´s amazing how many people move around in just that one floor. I wondered if the other floors had as much movement. Probably. What also called my attention was the fact that no one paid any attention to you. I walked in, didn´t say anything and headed straight towards what I knew was Goren´s desk. Neither he nor his partner were there. I stood there for a few minutes, then decided I might as well be useful while I was there. I sat down, not at Goren´s desk (it felt like I was intruding somehow), but at his partner´s and started going through all my books one more time...  
  
The mind, like God (if you believe in such things) works in mysterious ways. I went over the books, some of them twice, before Goren´s partner showed up. It took me a second to realize who it was, but when I did I immediately got off her chair and my train of thought was broken. I told her I had made little progress, she said something about "being in the same boat". I asked about Goren, she said he was working somethings out. I nodded in understanding, Goren was probably off somewhere letting his mind wonder. I envied him. I felt trapped, as if I was standing between a wall and...a wall. I felt that if I read one more book I would be lost in an infinite sea of too-much-knowledge, but if I didn´t keep on trying, I might never find the answer. It´s curious how sometimes when you find yourself at a low-point, a lot of things become clear.  
  
The chair squeaked as Eames sat down. I made a comment on it. She smiled and said that she wished she knew why. She said she´d looked at the chair, Goren had looked at the chair and someone else whose name I didn´t catch, had also looked at the chair. As she was looking for something she finished saying something which hit me like a ton of bricks, "if I knew why the chair squeaks I´d have my life fixed". I froze and stared at her. She looked up and stared right back. Somewhere between the squeaking chair and the movement of the room, it all started falling into place.  
  
Robert Goren can be described as many things, but the one that most often comes to many people´s mind is aloof. Robert Goren is aloof. I don´t think that´s true, because he always pays attention, he always knows what everyone said. I think that he just would much rather watch people than interact with them, but I´m not sure that´s true either. In any case, he is a complicated man. This particular character and the fact that life has quite a sense of humor, seemed to come together so that as I was being hit by a ton of bricks at my revelation, Robert Goren was nowhere to be found.  
  
His mother once told me that he did that a lot, even as a kid. He said he was always thinking and sometimes needed to sort things out in his head. When he did this, he almost always went off somewhere, but no one knows where. I felt like I was finally making progress, only there was no one to report the progress too. His partner knew this as well, Eames is a smart woman, but Goren understands people at a whole different level. I needed to find him, so did she. The problem was, where do you go to find Robert Goren? You might try the library, but chances were he wasn´t there, maybe he went to see his mother, but it was almost imposible, he wouldn´t leave in the middle of a working day to visit her unless it was something terribly pressing, it was a sure bet he wasn´t at home...it really didn´t narrow the field down.  
  
Eames called his cell again and again, but he didn´t pick up. I stood there being useless, I knew the man from spending two or three hours at a time discussing academic subjects, I didn´t even know what kind of foods he liked, let alone where he went to think. I was starting to feel nervous, but I don´t know why. Eames didn´t seem to concerned, I asked her about it, she said Goren was a complicated guy and that he´d probably show up any minute. It wasn´t like him to take off and be unreachable, but who really knew with that man? I got the sense that she wasn´t worried or angry, not even annoyed, but there was something...maybe it was confusion? I couldn´t really place it. I suppose that working with Goren day in and day out brings out a whole range of emotions. I can see why he can enfuriate some and confuse others, but he is a brilliant man, with good intentions. I hadn´t really thought about it before, but Alexandra Eames must have the patience of a saint and the understanding of the gods in order for her to work so well with Goren.  
  
My personal musings were interesting and all, but that didn´t stop me from thanking life when ten minutes later Goren walked to his desk, asking Eames if she´d called him. She said yes and reprimanded him, half jokingly, about his dissapearance. He almost smiled and said nothing. There was a comment, a joke, something between them but nothing was said, it was simply understood. I watched, fascinated, and entire conversation taking place without one word being uttered. It was over immediately after it started. Goren turned to me and I told him I had something. His eyes jumped at this and I felt, again, like a little bit of a genius, having caught something just a second faster that Goren had. I pulled an uncomfortable chair up and sat between Goren and Eames, I digged through my pile of books and found my old and falling apart notebook. Eames marveled at the fact that it was still in existance, Goren said nothing.  
  
The book had a blue plastic cover, originally, but I´d lost it long ago and in it´s place there was a carboard, covered in plastic so that it wouldn´t get too ruined. The pages could be torn out of it and the spiral running through the pages was made of metal. Over the course of the years, this notebook had served me as my "guideline" notebook. Written on it´s pages were outlines and remarks on all the subjects that had ever interested me since I started collegue. Most of it was dedicated to philosophy. I had filled it up long ago but kept attaching loose sheets, clinging on to dear life with paper clips and staples. Over the years, the pages pegan to naturally tear off, and after a bad accident involving my little brother playing a prank, the metal spiral that held it all together had been almost completely taken out. I had tried to put it back in, but I found it a lot more difficult than I imagined and ended up cutting off the parts of metal which stuck out and weaving an old shoelace through the pages were there was no metal left. I opened it and all kinds of papers threatened to fall out: post-its, napkins with sketches, pieces of paper with crytpical notes on them, other sheets of paper, paper clips, staples...A friend of mine once called it a "tribute to Dr. Frankestein".  
  
Right around the middle of my notebook there was an entire section dedicated to the ancient philosophers which had stuck me the most: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. My neat handwritting showed perfect order inside what had once been described as the "perfect juggernaut". I opened my notebook to the page I was looking for and started explaining.  
  
" -Oedipus-.....Sophocles.....Hunter.....Victory...Proof...Action. It just came to me, maybe all of the elements aren´t joined in one straight line." Goren´s mind was going a thousand miles a minute, Eames was more patient, she waited until I was finished before putting it all together, "the Hunter and Victory, that´s who comitted the crime right? I was trying to fit them all inside the same place, but it just hit me. You eliminate the authors, so that leaves only -Oedipus-, Sophocles, proof and action, but -Oedipus- and Sophocles are redundant, so we just leave Sophocles. This gives us proof, action and Sophocles and this makes a lot of sense."  
  
Eames was trying to figure it out and Goren was inside his head, trying to find the connection. I pointed at my notes an announced somwhat triumphantly, "Aristotle. That´s their point."  
  
Goren was still saying nothing but his eyes were starting to light up, he was understanding. Eames still looked a little confused, she was the first one to speak, "So this person is trying to prove some philosphy theory with murder?"  
  
"Through murder, yeah" I said, "Aristotle´s philosphy, through his literary critic, through murder."  
  
It was Goren´s turn to speak up. He looked at his partner, his pen in his left hand, leaning slightly forward, "-Oedipus- is the only perfect tragedy according to Aristotle, it...it has all the elements of a perfect tragedy...a tragic character, destiny, circumstance which sets off the action and an...open ending...it has everything, it fits perfectly with Aristotle´s metaphysical theories...matter and form, substance and accident, cause and effect...potential and action...the killer, he...he´s proving Aristotle right by doing this."  
  
It was now Eames´ head´s turn to spin, "But what part is he trying to prove right, I mean "Aristotle´s metaphycial theories" doesn´t really narrow the field down."  
  
Goren didn´t say anything, neither did I. I was in over my head, they were starting to talk phsychology which I know nothing about. I had been called in to connect the dots and I had managed to do that, figuring out the mind behind the dots was something I could not do. I felt the seriousness of the situation hit me. It´s a creepy thought, a killer with so much to prove, with such meticulous planning, this was a truly dangerous person. Someone with enough conviction to kill for their beliefs, but with enough genius to not get caught and make a point of the killing. The killer -was- like a hunter, waiting, watching, planning, having enough patience for the perfect moment to get at his prey. 


	5. Breaking point

DISCLAIMER: I don´t own ´em, no harm is meant by taking ´em.  
  
A/N: This is a REALLY short one but hopefully you´ll enjoy! Like I promised, I will finish this soon but please bear with me for another week (if the end of the semester doesn´t kill me..). Thanks for all the reviews and keep them coming!  
  
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A few days later, Bobby and I were still not on speaking terms. We got together at Megan´s place. She was elated. They´d bought their alibies. I was happy; Tom seemed preocuppied with other things, he was staring at the t.v., there was some stupid sports game on and he wouldn´t take his eyes off it. Bobby didn´t say anything. Megan noticed and asked me what was wrong. I was honest with her. I told her about how I´d left him alone outside the police station and how we hadn´t talked after that. She just smiled and told me Bobby was being Bobby. I knew it was true, then why did I feel so angry at him for not admiting his screw up? Megan said she didn´t know and joined Tom at the couch.  
Megan was a close friend, not my best friend, but close enough to be trusted. I didn´t know Tom very well outside of school. He´d asked me out once, but I´d said no. He didn´t talk to me much after that and from a few comments from Bobby I gather they had a "conversation". I hated when Bobby did that. He treated me like I was something of his, like I needed his protection, and then he´d put me second to his stupid books. I tried to put it all in the back of my mind and went to watch t.v., it didn´t work. Sports bore me. Before long, my mind was back on Bobby.  
Bobby was sitting in the dinning room, reading some book, making some notes. He´d mumbled something to Tom about it being "work related", but hadn´t elaborated. He´d only stuck around in the same room as us long enough to learn we were in the clear, then he´d left. It was getting on my nerves. I knew something was on his mind and I was just about ready to beat it out of him. It didn´t matter much, I didn´t do anything. I never do. Forty minutes later, Megan got up to make some popcorn and asked me for some help. As soon as we set foot in the kitchen she began drilling me.  
  
"Is he getting cold feet?"  
  
I rolled my eyes and passed her a bowl, "It´s not a wedding you know..no he´s not getting cold feet. It´s something else."  
  
Megan wasn´t appeased, "Are you sure? He´s a weird guy and all but you gotta wonder..."  
  
"Wonder what Megan? He´s not going to turn on us, he´s in it as much as any of us! It´s something else."  
  
"Are you sure? I mean...you know that detective..uh.what´s-his-face?"  
  
"Goren."  
  
"Yeah..he just..he was so much like him, you know? It...it freaked me out. Maybe he got to him."  
  
"Bobby´s a lot stronger than that! You know that Megan. I can´t believe this. He won´t do anything, he never does. Once he shuts up, he doesn´t open up, you know he´s like that."  
  
"I know but I mean...are you sure? ´Cause it really freaked me out and I mean...you´re the one with the cool head here. Tom´s and idiot, I mean he can´t see past the end of his nose! Bobby...well he´s...Bobby."  
  
"He won´t talk. He´s a bastard. He shuts up everything else, why should he make an exception?"  
  
Megan bit her lower lip. She turned and put everything in the microwave. She didn´t turn to face me when she spoke again, "Is that what´s going on? Is it this "thing" between you two again?"  
  
I took a deep breath and played with the kitchen towel, absent mindedly, "What thing?" I finally asked her, "There is no thing...probably never will be." I didn´t mean for that last part to come out, but I guess I needed to talk to someone (anyone) about it. Ever since the murders, I felt like maybe me and Bobby had something, some conexion between us. All the murders had done was to make things worse. I started regretted killing those people, not because I felt guilty, but because it had somehow screwed up my relationship with Bobby and I didn´t even know why! Megan interrupted my thoughts.  
  
"No thing? Who are you kidding! There´s always been a thing between you two." She took the popcorn and went back to the couch. I was surprised to say the least. I played with the towel for another couple of minutes before heading into the dinning room.  
  
I walked in to find Bobby on the telephone. That was odd, he never got called by anyone but me, Tom or Megan (Sara and Mr. Finniger used to call him, but it obviously wasn´t them). He noticed me come in. He stood up and looked at me. His eyes had no emotion in them. He came close to me and just stood there, looking at me, talking to the phone. It was a short call. When he hung up he went for his books without a word to me. He was almost to the door when I got in his way. I didn´t know what to say to him, but I knew I couldn´t let him leave this room without at least trying to say something.  
  
He looked at his feet for a second before clearing his throat and looking back at me. It looked like he was choosing what to say. When he finally spoke I almost regretted wishing he had, "That was detective Goren...he...he wants to talk to us again. Something about a break in the case. I told him I´d come by in about half an hour..he said it was urgent."  
  
If looks could kill I think he would have of desintegrated before me. I hated him at that moment. I took a deep breath and looked down at the floor. I didn´t move. He didn´t move. I finally looked back up, but not at him, "I´ll go with you." I said.  
  
Megan and Tom were not pleased, but it was decided it was best if Bobby and I went. If it was anything important we´d call and they could show up, if it wasn´t, then they could pretend like they never heard detective Goren was looking for them. It was a a mediocre plan, but it had to work. It might just seem a little suspicious if the four of us walked in together. In my gut I knew we were probably going to be held as suspects, I guess I just wanted to keep my hopes up. I asked Megan to look in on my plants, she promised she´d take care of it all and rushed us out. Bobby and I didn´t talk until we got to the police station. I was still fuming and what Bobby told me didn´t help to calm me down.  
  
"Do you think they got the point?"  
  
"I don´t know Bobby. I don´t think I care much right now."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Never mind."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Nothing."  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"Drop it Bobby."  
  
"Ok...do you think they´ll put both of us in the same room again?"  
  
"For your sake I hope not."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"´Cause I could just about kill you right now Bobby!"  
  
I turned to face him and found both detective Goren and Eames standing a few feet from us. They had obviously heard that. I took a breath to calm down. I needed to keep control. I shouldn´t have let Bobby get to me like that. Not at the police station. Not standing in a little corner in a room full of cops. We were led into a little grey room just like the one we´d been in before. Bobby sat to my left. The cop that escorted us stayed in the room while the detectives went to get something from their desks. It didn´t take long.  
  
Goren didn´t sit. He stood at the corner to our backs and on my right. Neither Bobby nor I turned to face him. His parter sat in front of us and calmly opened a file. It was a thick file. Their attitudes were completely different now. They were think´d done it. I was surprised at this, I mean, we did commit the murders and we did set up the scene, but I couldn´t help it, I was still a little surprised. Maybe it was because it had been so fast. I´d expected months to go by, not a few days! Detective Eames almost smiled, she pulled out some papers from the file, "Guess what we found?", she asked. 


	6. Falling appart, coming together

DISCLAIMER: Don´t own ´em, don´t sue pretty please! I have nothing... A/N: So update! I know, it´s been a while but as you can see, I did not die in the end of the semester! (or rather, because of it...) in any case I promise to update more quickly now that I have all the free time in the world (almost...). I appreciate the patience and the comments, as always, so keep them coming! (both patience and the comments)  
  
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A few days after our last meeting, I stopped feeling like a genius. I had figured out part the language, but I still couldn´t read the message. To tell the truth, a couple of days later, I felt like an idiot. I had called Goren a few times to ask if they´d made any progress, the answer was always the same. They hadn´t. I couldn´t help but feel they wouldn´t. I finally gave up, put my old notebook away and tried to forget the entire case. It was a little impossible, seeing as how it was on the news every single day. All the facts had not been released to the public, but it was enough to remind me. It seemed life didn´t want me to forget.  
  
It had been almost one whole day since I´d last spoken to Goren (or rather Eames, when I called, he wasn´t there). I had gone to the store, gotten some unhealthy foods and tried to concentrate on work, my idiot boss had called me, saying he wasn´t feeling well and had then proceeded to come over to my place and drop off nearly twenty essays which needed grading. I looked at the due date on the paper I was reading again, it had been handed in over two months ago! I cursed loudly at my boss, he should´ve graded them at least six weeks before. After a couple of minutes I couldn´t blame him for avoiding the papers though, they were so bad I was about to hit my head against the wall. It was embarassing really, if one can´t handle something, why go up against it? Not only was the grammar bad, but in the case of -Sara Evans-, there wasn´t one single sentence that made sense! I had been at it for about an hour, and had gotten through about three papers when the doorbell rang. I went over to the door, hoping it was someone,..anyone. I needed to take a break, before I started thinking about committing suicide rather than read another paper on "Eristotl´s -Cool Philosophy-"; I spoke too soon.  
  
What greeted me when I opened the door made me wish I had a hundred papers by Sara Evans. There stood my deadbeat dad, drunk as always, leaning against the door frame. The stink of booze was almost too much to bear. He looked like he hadn´t changed or shaved or even showered in days. He smiled at me and held his arms open, I didn´t move. The last time I´d heard from him was almost four months ago. He called and he was sober and he said he and my little brother (half brother really) were taking a vacation. I´d tried to stop him, but he said he was fine. The only thing that stopped me from slamming the door in his face was the six year old holding his arm (probably more to support him than out of security). I looked at my father, it hadn´t been a good week, and this did it.  
  
"What the hell are you doing with him?!" I took the boy´s arm and pulled him in. My father followed, stumbling all the way to the couch. He simply shrugged and laughed. I took my brother to the kitchen. He, at least, looked clean, but I doubted he´d had much to eat in a couple of days. I kicked myself mentally for only bringing back twinkies and pop- tarts from the store. I sat him up on the counter, he didn´t let go of me and soon he was crying. I didn´t know what to do. He calmed down in a few minutes and looked at his feet.  
  
"I´m sorry..." he said. I looked at him, confused, he continued, "I told him to bring me here. Everything was fine until last week, he...met a girl who looked like mom, but she didn´t like me."  
  
I didn´t need to hear the rest of the story. His mom, my stepmother, had been a step up from a stripper and also an alcoholic. She´d married my dad after knowing him for two months, nine moths later, Tyler was born. There were about two good years in which my dad worked and Ty´s mother stayed at home, but as soon as the kid was in school, they both went off the deep end. They ended up getting divorced, it was messy, and by then Ty´s mother was so messed up that my father actually got custody. That had been about a year ago. I had last seen Ty about eight months ago. I knew I should´ve fought to keep him with me, but I was just getting all my life together and was finally living on my own and working and I figured maybe my dad would sober up. I now knew it had been a mistake. I stayed with Ty in the kitchen for about half an hour and then went to face my father.  
  
I told him to leave. I gave him a change of clothes from the last time he´d shown up at my door, told him I would be keeping Ty until he got his life together, led him to the door and shut it. I doubt he ever knew what happened. He allowed himself to be led out, cried a drunken goodbye to his son and left. As if this wasn´t enough, as soon as the door was shut the phone rang. It was my idiot boss, he was apparently healthy enough to show up at my door with papers to grade, but sick enough to not show up at his classes for the next "three or so" days. I hung up and cursed, I raised my eyes and saw Ty standing in front of me. This was going to be a long, long, long week.  
  
The rest of the afternoon was spent on tracking down my little brother´s bag with all his clothes, we found it at the basement door, where our dear father had probably left it after I kicked him out; then, we went to the store to get some more decent food and a couple of other things for Ty (mostly books, he was more partial to those nice and violent video games, but I couldn´t afford that and besides, no way in hell was he going to rot his brain out with those things); when we finally got home, I found six messages waiting for me, all from the secretary at school, reminding me I had classes all the next day until six o´clock. I decided to deal with that the following morning. Ty fell asleep no later than eight o´clock (travelling with your drunk dad is tireing, I knew from personal experience). I couldn´t sleep, now that my life was getting more and more complicated I couldn´t put the case down. I knew I was only doing it to avoid thinking about everything else, but I didn´t much care. The next morning I decided to take Ty in with me, I could leave him in my boss´s office, hopefully he´d tear it all down and then my day would be a little bit better.  
  
I made it to the school just in time. I was perfectly on time and sighning in when the secretary found me, the first class had been canceled. I almost threw the desk across the room. I decided to use that time for something, I went to talk to all of -my- teachers, I had to explain to them why I was going to miss class for the next week. I got rotten looks from most of them and one even threatened to fail me. After that I shut myself up in my boss´s office, and tried to grade some more papers. Amazingly enough, I got through all of them (they probably weren´t marvelously graded, but, again, I didn´t care much). Ty was very patient, very quiet and very still. I decided to take him along to the next class, he´d probably bore himself stiff but I at least would know where he was, in any case, I´d thought it over and having Ty destroy my boss´s office wouldn´t look to good.  
  
The class was...torture, it was like trying to get three year olds to understand quantum mechanics, or get turtles to grow wings and fly into outer space! It was a slow going two hours, but when it was finally over, I felt a little better. I gave back all the papers, all stared at me with dumb looks on their faces, Sara Evans even asked why I´d marked "Eristotl´s" wrong. I told them to call their professor, I was just a substitute. That felt good, nothing like a little meaness to lighten a shitty day. I was just leaving (running away really), when the -almost- last person I wanted to run into came up to me. His name is Steve, and even though he´s kinda cute, he´s an asshole who can´t tell his left hand from his right foot and who is under the mistaken impression I have fallen head over heels for him. He came up to me from behind and snaked his arm around me, I pushed him away but that wasn´t enough of a hint because he followed me all the way to the office.  
  
Steve, being the charming man he is, barely acknowledged Ty and bent his whole self on invading my personal space. After about two words came out of his mouth he asked me out, I refused, he asked me out again, I refused again, he asked again, I refused, he asked, I slammed some books on the desk and pushed him off it. I don´t even know why, but at that moment I just started running my mouth, I told him, or rather, screamed, everything at him. The best part was when I told him about Ty, for a second something seemed to have of gone through his head and into his tiny, testosterone filled brain...it was only wishfull thinking though.  
  
"...I am no motherly figure! I can barely take care of myself Steve, so just leave me alone go bother someone else." I took a deep breath. Ty was shocked and he stood in a corner, almost smiling ironically enough. I, in turn, felt better, much better. This great feeling didn´t last for long, Steve went and opened his mouth.  
  
"Hey, I think you´ll make a great mom some day you know...I got an idea, maybe we could start trying out in -that department- tonite, let me take you out."  
  
I was about to throw a book at him when it hit me, I looked at him with what I imagine was a stupid expression on my face, "What?"  
  
He smiled, mistakenly believing he´d won, he came close, sat back on the desk and put his hand on my shoulder, he lowered his voice almost to a whisper, "About you being able to be a good mother? Or about me taking you out?"  
  
"The mother part..."  
  
He looked at me with a strange look but continued anyway, "Well, you know, you could be a good mother, I think you haven´t had the right chance to develop it though..."  
  
I didn´t even wait for his next sleezy comment. I took off, came back a second later to get Ty. Steve looked utterly confused, I took a second to thank him. I ran to the secretary, told her to cancel the rest of the classes. I could not believe it, my life, my crisis, everything had actually done something. It just so happened, that the rest of the pieces on the case started falling into place. I didn´t even call Eames or Goren, I simply showed up at the station. Ty was elated he was going to see a police station from the inside, that was good, it made it very easy for him to promise to behave himself in there. The doors opened up and I walked into the big maze of small desks, a cop stopped me, said I couldn´t be there without an escort. I didn´t have to argue with him for long, out of the corner came the two people I was looking for, they let me in and I told them everything. 


	7. Playing

DISCLAIMER: Not mine, never will be..a sad thing, but true...  
  
A/N: This one´s a bit longer than the others, but not by much. I promise I will try really, really, really hard to update again before the end of the week (maybe even finish it before the end of the year...). Thank you VERY much for all the nice comments and reviews. As always, all comments are welcome, good or bad.  
  
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-Guess what we found?- The question hung on the air, it was almost palpable and for a second, I almost panicked. It suddenly hit me, this was real, it had happened. I had committed murder and I was close to being found out. I caught myself before anything was noticed, but I couldn´t help a single solitary thought from reaking havoc inside my head: We were caught.  
  
Despite the fact that I was panicking inside, I tried to keep a cool look. It seemed to work. The paper Detective Eames had taken out of the folder was not visible to either Bobby or myself. I wanted to turn and look at him, I felt like I needed some reassurance, but if I did, they would know something was wrong. I chose instead to look down at the paper. Detective Eames looked at it too, but still didn´t show it to us. After a second she set it down in front of me, it was a photograph. It was a photograph of the crime seen. It was a photograph of Mr. Finniger. I can´t explain what happened then, I completely freaked out.  
  
"Oh God..." The words escaped me before I even knew it and I turned away. It was awfull, all of a sudden I felt like I had lead in my stomach. I couldn´t even breath properly. It was surprising, I never thought about it, but pictures of the dead are quite disturbing. There was a point to our murders, there was a point to the dead bodies and so they were nothing to be repelled by; a picture of a corpse is a different story, it has no use. Bobby looked at me strangely, and I felt myself going cold. I never thought they´d actually show us the pictures.  
  
As I turned away from the photograph, I noticed the other cop, Detective Goren. If I didn´t know better, I´d say he was almost smiling. I held his eyes for a second and then turned back. I looked down at my hands, my heart was still racing. About ten seconds had elsapsed and that was enough time for Bobby to take in the situation, and adapt to it. He surprised me by placing a hand on my shoulder, then looking straight at Detective Eames he began to speak.  
  
"Are we suspects?"  
  
Detective Eames shrugged and said, "Should you be?"  
  
Bobby stared for another couple of seconds and said nothing. He let his hand drop from my shoulder and slid the photograph back to the Detective. He turned a little, he was speaking to Detective Goren, but wasn´t exactly looking at him, "I give...what did you find that´s so utterly fascinating?"  
  
Detective Goren smirked, but said nothing. Bobby had to turn back to the woman in order to get an answer, she put the photograph away, "Are you familiar with Aristotle?"  
  
Bobby smiled and placed his elbows on the table. He leaned on his hand and sighed, when he spoke, he did it without taking his hand too far from his mouth, "What about him?" Silence was his only answer. He took a deep breath. He let his hands drop to the table and crossed his fingers. He leaned forward on the seat. "Do the murders have something to do with Aristotle?"  
  
Detective Eames smiled, "You´re a smart man."  
  
Bobby turned to Detective Goren. Neither of them said anything and the tension started climbing in the little interrogation room. I felt almost claustrophobic but gave no signs of it. I looked at Bobby, then at Detective Eames and finally to Detective Goren. Bobby spoke after another few seconds of silence, "You´re a smart man too Detective...you look like you know a lot of...stuff. Why don´t you tell us what you found?"  
  
Detective Goren took a few steps towards the table. He took out a series of photographs and threw them on the table. They were more pictures of the bodies. I closed my eyes and turned away, at that moment I was more surprised by my reactions. I didn´t expect for the pictures to affect me like this. I had looked these people in the eye and helped to kill them, I had looked Mr. Finniger in the eye right before gauging them out, I hadn´t even given it a second thought, but the pictures...I was floating somewhere between disgust, fear and utter confusion. I couldn´t even begin to guess what Bobby was feeling. When all the photgraphs were lying on the table Detective Goren started speaking, as he did so, he put his finger on each picture.  
  
"A man attacked and killed...a woman hung....another man, his eyes gouged out...this is...this is very clever."  
  
Bobby stared at Detective Goren without a single emotion showing, I looked down at the pictures, then up at both Detectives...clever? It wasn´t -clever- it was a work of genius. I was confused, I knew they were playing us, and that was not were my confusion was coming from. It was actually originating from something else. I was wondering if they really thought we´d confess in some sort of prideful attack. It wasn´t going to work, if they had come so far it meant that they understood the messege completely and that also meant that they did not just consider this -clever-. Bobby finally smiled, it looked perfectly innocent to most people, but I knew that when his smile turned up just a bit crooked, it wasn´t just a smile, it was a smirk.  
  
"What´s so clever?" He asked innocently.  
  
"Come on..doesn´t it sound...familiar? The hanging, the eyes..you´re smart, you´re both smart..you must know by now."  
  
"Maybe..in any case you shouldn´t be doing this. What is this? You think you can play us..it won´t work Detective. You have us here why?...because we are the logical suspects! You don´t have a shred of evidence to support any theory you might have because if you did we´d already be under arrest."  
  
Bobby stood up and leaned against the wall. He put his hands in his pockets and looked down at his shoes. In that moment, Dtective Goren´s attention turned towards me. He smiled and I knew it wasn´t a friendly one, he dropped his voice and leaned forward in the seat he´d just taken, "How about you? Does this look...familiar? Or...maybe you agree with Bobby, maybe you think we´re..playing you?" He looked at his partner with what had supposed to be, I´m sure, a confused look. She returned it and looked back at me. They both wore the perfect mask of innocence.  
  
What happened next was very important. I do not have the same temperament as Bobby, I don´t fly off emotionally. I wouldn´t of said what Bobby said to Detective Goren. It´s not because I´m afraid, or because I had a guilty conscience (as both Detectives probably thought). I had no guilty conscience, killing a man might not have been the highlight of my life (nor would I want it to be), but I didn´t feel guilty. My silence so far was due more to my own temperament, my own personality. With the Detectives eyes now focused on me, I was free to play out my part. I carefully avoided looking down at the table, I might not regret killing three people, but I did not relish the idea of looking at their post-mortem kodak shots. I choose instead to look at Detective Goren. He was still leaning forward, patiently waiting for me to speak up.  
  
"It´s Oedipus." I said. He pretended to be confused and I rolled my eyes, I didn´t have Satan´s or Bobby´s temper, but I did have my limits. "What you see..it´s Oedipus, right?"  
  
Detective Goren´s smile widened. He didn´t say anything though, I knew they wanted me to finish. I sighed loudly and leaned back on the chair, shook my head and looked up at the ceiling, oddly enough, there was a piece of pink gum stuck right above my head, "According to Aristotle, the only perfect tragedy ever written."  
  
"That´s very good. You must´ve paid attention to Mr. Finniger,..." I took my eyes away from the ceiling and back to Detective Goren as he spoke, "I have another question...why..why do you think it´s the perfect tragedy?"  
  
"Because Detective..," the next sentences took all my patience, I could barely stand to see those eyes anymore, so smug, believing he was so close to getting us, to catching us, "It meets all the criteria Aristotle considered necessary for it to work..it´s perfectly cathartic...it clenses you."  
  
"I´m impressed.." Detective Goren turned to Bobby and pointed loosely at me, "your girlfriend..she´s smart."  
  
Bobby said nothing. He straightened up and looked at me for a second. Detective Goren started walking around the room, passing close to both Bobby and me. Detective Eames stared at me, she also thought we would break soon, or make a mistake. I tired of her gaze very quickly, I shook my head and smiled, so that she could see. For a second, doubt crossed her mind but it was quickly disguised. Detective Goren kept going.  
  
"These murders they are..clever, but there is one problem, whoever commited them had to be familiar with all of this..I mean...the point..we get it. It´s..interesting, and can only be the work of someone who would know this by heart..who could understand it..who would be in a position to believe it wholeheartedly.." His voice trailed off and he stopped in front of Bobby. Detective Goren was not smiling any more. He turned away and sat back down, as he did, Bobby spoke up.  
  
"What point is that?"  
  
Detective Goren looked at his partner and she looked at Bobby. After a second she looked back at her partner and shrugged her shoulders, almost imperceptably. Detective Goren sighed loudly and leaned back on his chair, "I think you know the point..you´ve known all along..what´s surprising is you asked about that, but not about the problem..you want to make sure we understand you work? Want to make sure we made no mistake?" 


	8. Solutions

DISCLAIMER: Not mine, never will be. It´s sad, but true...  
  
A/N: A short one, but this time it is winding down so things are starting to pick up. Thanks for all of the patience you´ve had. As always all take all kinds of comments (so don´t forget to review...) and I hope you like it.  
  
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I was in such a hurry to tell them everything that I almost forgot about Ty. I didn´t actually forget -him-, I forgot that he was a stranger to everyone else. We were taken to one of those cramped rooms with the table in the middle, I saw that the file on the case was open. Goren walked in first and put all the pictures away, I was gratefull for that. It wasn´t that I was going to be bothered by them, but I didn´t really know if Ty would be. I wondered about that for a second, after all, once upon a time, our father had been a pretty good coroner and I´d seen my share of pictures of dead people, I just didn´t know if Ty even knew about our father´s life before being a drunk.  
  
The file was hastily put on top of a lot of other files and books. Most of them on Aristotle I noticed, Goren was still working on the case after all. Ty stood awkwardly at the entrance, Eames noticed him but it was Goren who asked me about him. I told him the short version of why Ty was with me. I didn´t leave out the part about our drunken father, I didn´t mean to actually say it outloud, but I suppose I was still very angry at him. I saw a look of understanding and...something like anger which I couldn´t quite place, in Goren. Eames looked at her partner and for a second I swore she looked worried about him. I tucked that into my brain, I could wonder about it later. Ty was settled at the far corner of the table and Goren actually managed to fish out a book for him to read, something about the behavior or some or another animal. It amazed me, just how many books could that man hide in a police station?  
  
I began with my day. It sounds weird I would, but I needed to go through the whole process. Maybe all I wanted was to make sure I wasn´t insane before I started spitting out theories and answers to questions I barely understood. When I got to the part about Steve I found myself interrupted, by Ty of all people.  
  
"He´s a creep...Steve is." I looked at him and then down at the table. I didn´t know what to say to that! He was making the understatement of the week, but I looked at him and all of a sudden it seemed like no six- year old should be able to tell the difference between the good and bad people so quickly. When you´re six you´re supposed to be naive and trusting, you´re supposed to just be a kid. It suddenly hit me how much it seemed like Ty was fourteen or fifteen rather than six, he didn´t look it, but the way he behaved...I finally managed a weak smile at him and turned back to the detectives. Goren was looking back at Ty, and it seemed like they both had the same way of looking at the world and I started hating my father even more.  
  
After a couple of seconds of silence, Goren turned back to me. I had his full attention again, but Eames kept looking back between Ty and Goren. She saw it too, or maybe she knew something I didn´t, all of a sudden I knew part of her mind was no longer on the case. I decided to just finish it all as quickly as possible, I had already been there for nearly twenty minutes, I just felt like I was intruding...again. I took a deep breath and continued.  
  
"So...anyway," it´s funny how you always say that when you know not what to say, "It just...hit me. I mean, not the whole mother thing but the whole potential thing. One of the easiest and most known principles of Aristotle is the pairing of potential-action. Everyone understands it, it´s very easy, all it means is that you can only achieve what you can potentially be. If there is no potential, there will be no action. I just...I think that what they´re trying to say is exactly that I mean, I guess if I were to do this I...that´s just what I would mean. Anyone can be a killer, I mean...why doesn´t matter, I think, it never did. It´s just the act of killing...anyone can do it."  
  
Goren stared at me and I could not read his thoughts. He stared at me so intently that I looked down at the table, completely convinced that I was completely wrong. Goren barely moved, but Eames was writing everything down, apparently she was over whatever shock had hit her and she was back on track. I was about to speak again when Goren beat me to it.  
  
"That part about the criminal...you said -they-....why?"  
  
I looked up at him confused. Out of all the things I figured would come out of his mouth, that was the last. I didn´t know what to say, I finally asked, sounding all stupid, "Did you already know about this?...what I just told you?"  
  
"Uhm...no, but I mean, it maked sense it could be true...but you said -they´re trying to say-...why?"  
  
I looked over at Eames, she didn´t seem surprised at all! I chanced a look at Ty, he seemed curious to know too. For a second I thought maybe I was wrong...but I shook it off quickly, Goren´s question had nothing to do with what I was saying. He, I decided, is a -very- weird man.  
  
"I just figured...I mean it´s three bodies right? I dunno, maybe it´s cause I´ve never committed murder before but I figure you´d need more than one person to committ them...I mean, it´s all very planned and everything had a place, all this organization...I guess I can´t believe only one individual could be responsible, I don´t...I don´t know..."  
  
I thought it was a pretty dumb answer, but Goren didn´t really seem to be thinking about that. He got up and thanked me quickly and quietly, Eames followed. I was left, very confused, with Ty sitting on the other side of the table, looking down at the book he´d been given again. I was only starting to get up when I heard Goren again, he´d come back and was sticking his head into the room. He seemed in a hurry.  
  
"If you had to choose someone to do this...who would it be?"  
  
I tried not to delay too much this time, "I dunno...maybe, a student?"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because a teacher would know that Aristotle condoned all kinds of acts of violence against another person."  
  
"You would choose a student because it´s more likely they missed something?"  
  
"Because it´s more likely they´d skip all the parts they didn´t like."  
  
Goren smiled a very criptic smile. He pointed a loose finger at me, but looked at Ty, who was looking right back at Goren, "She´s...she´s good."  
  
With that he disappeared. I got Ty and left Goren´s book on his desk. Neither he nor his partner where there. As we walked down the hall I got a glimpse of them inside an office, there was another man with them, and he looked none too happy with what he was being told. Maybe it was their boss. I took Ty´s hand and went back home. On the way over, all Ty could talk about was how -cool- his morning had been; all I could think about was what had just happened. Had I dreamed it all? It was certainly weird enough for me to doubt it. 


	9. Getting away

DISCLAIMER: Not mine, please take no offense in the fact that I´m using them.  
  
A/N: It´s almost over now, I promise. I hope you like this one and please keep all the comments coming.  
  
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Bobby didn´t fall for the Detective´s game. He looked up at Detective Goren with an empty stare and said nothing. Detective Goren acted annoyed and walked behind us. He stuck his head between us and started talking.  
  
"The point. Potential and action...correct?" he pulled back and went to stand in the same corner as before. He said no more, this time it was his partner who started speaking.  
  
"A lot of killings, most of them even, are random acts. They´re not planned our thought out, they just...happen. This one is one of those exceptions. The killers had to plan this, every detail every single aspect had to be well thought out. It was methodical, organized...you´re average person could not have of committed this."  
  
I looked at Detective Eames, she looked right back at me. She took a deep breath and continued.  
  
"Now we understood the point, it´s interesting, but it was still murder. You had the access to all three people and you had time, you also have motive."  
  
Bobby couldn´t help but laugh, "What motive do you think we´d have?"  
  
"Well you know the material...you understood it, you...you would be the only ones who´d want to make a point of it..." Detective Goren´s voice sounded threatening, and it was low, so low that I almost could not hear him, "you´d tried before. We spoke to your classmates, your...teachers. It seems you took Mr. Finniger´s class very seriously...someone even said that you´d found uhm...-the truth in living-?". He looked up at his partner, who nodded her head. Goren sat back down and for a second I wondered if he was ever still. His partner continued talking though.  
  
"People seem to think you took it too seriously. So seriously you even left a teacher´s assistant with a broken nose because of it." She took out another picture and showed it to us. That was her.  
  
It had been a stupid argument. The assistant was supposed to hand out some outlines and solve any doubts we might have. Bobby had decided it would be fun to test her knowledge, she was actually quite good. When the class was over, Bobby refused to let it go, he walked behind her, still calling out quotes and sayings and theories. She finally had enough of it and had said that Aristotle was an old corpse with no validity anymore. Bobby was offended, he punched her in the face. Hard. There was only one problem with that though...that had happened almost a year ago. I breathed easier, they didn´t have us. They still didn´t understand the simple fact that there was no reason for the murders, that was part of the point. The -why- was not important.  
  
I must confess by this point I was beginning to feel annoyed. They were not as smart as they thought they were. It was quite simple really, every single person could committ the most awfull of crimes simply because it is human nature. It might sound too pessimistic, to dark, but all of us held it as true. It is an inevitability, from torturing ants as a child to murder and rape, arson and kidnapping, human beings are naturally prone to such actions. All that we set out to do was prove this, what better way to prove the perversion of the human mind than by committing a murder only to prove the perversion of the mind? It was brilliant, it was true. These people had failed to see it though.  
  
I looked at both Detectives and tried to imagine their lives. In the end, the only clear idea I had about them was that they didn´t believe man was an evil creature. I didn´t understand how they could not, being in the line of work they were. Maybe they were optimists, maybe they didn´t want to believe it because it would make them a perversion too, and that would make their entire lives useless, they would be meaningless; lost in a dark void from were there is no escape. That cannot be an easy life to hold. They had to have hope, but all we wanted to do was show them there was none. We´d done that, and they refused to see. I was relieved because we were not caught, but I felt like we´d failed because these two Detectives were in denial of a simple truth.  
  
As we had been silent for nearly two minutes, the Detectives took it as a false sighn we were beaten. Detective Goren started speaking again, this time faking empathy.  
  
"We know it was you...my partner and me...but you were also just trying to prove something, to the world...to people who refused to listen to you. Standing up for your beliefs isn´t wrong, Detective Eames and I know this...murder is wrong. You´re caught so there´s no more need to lie."  
  
He looked at me. I almost laughed in his face. His heartfelt speech was not going to make me feel guilty. If it weren´t because they were so thick (and the probability of going to prison for the rest of my natural life), I would of told him that we had committed the murders, but that he was so thickheaded that the entire purpose of it had been lost on him. I choose instead to roll my eyes at him. Uncharacteristic of me, I have more patience than that, but these two had surpassed my limits long ago. Bobby spoke up again.  
  
"This is all you have? That we took Mr. Finniger´s class and believed in what he taught us? It´s ridiculous! You...can´t play us. We´re smarter than that."  
  
It was Detective Goren´s turn to laugh. He went around the table and stood next to Bobby. He slammed his hand against the table, making an awfull noise and me jump. He stopped laughing and turned deadly serious.  
  
"Not so smart...whoever did these crimes...they messed up. The killers, they only took the parts they liked about some theories and forgot about the rest! That´s not smart! That´s not truly believing in something! But that ´s fine because you made it work for you...in a way." Detective Goren smiled again, this time only at Bobby. Bobby felt insulted, stood infront of the Detective and came close to him, the Detective didn´t back down.  
  
"I know this stuff...we all know this stuff..we would never mess up with it, that alone should be proof enough we didn´t do anything wrong!"  
  
Detective Goren took a step back and shook his finger at Bobby as if he were talking to a stubborn child. He pushed Bobby back down to his chair by putting a heavy hand on his shoulder, as soon as Bobby was back in his seat Detective Goren started speaking again, "Maybe...maybe not. Did...did you forget about the part were Aristotle said...what was it?" He turned to his partner who quickly jumped in, her words dripped with superiority, I officially hated this woman.  
  
"What? The part were he said it was better to suffer a crime than committ one?"  
  
Detective Goren smiled and turned back to Bobby, "Oh yeah...better to suffer a crime than to committ one...these murders then, they aren´t very...aristotelic. They try to be, but they fall desperately short, you know why?...because whoever committed these murders only took what was convinient to them...that sounds a lot like a student doesn´t it? I mean I know I certainly did it...bottom line is it could not have of been anyone else! It was you and the other two who were in here! It had to be, you four...you tried to believe in something but..." His voice trailed off.  
  
Bobby stood up and walked to the door, I followed him. Before leaving Bobby turned back to the Detectives, "There´s a word for this...circumstancial. You have nothing, you can´t prove anything."  
  
Detective Goren smiled again and just as we were leaving he called after us, "We have more."  
  
I urged Bobby to not listen to the man, but he payed no attention to me. He turned around and walked right back into the room. Detective Goren took out another picture from the file, this time it was a photograph of a shoeprint. He handed it to me and I took it, Bobby looked at it but didn´t take it.  
  
"You see that Bobby?...that's a shoeprint but it´s not a normal shoeprint, whoever made it, was wearing bigger shoes and carrying something to make the imprint deeper, so that we would think the person was heavier...but you see this here?", he pointed at the front of the shoes, the imprint was a lot less shallow, "the shoes were too big...the toes didn´t make the mark deep enough, we know this is staged evidence..."  
  
I felt myself panicking again but Bobby took the picture from me and gave it back. He smiled and rolled his eyes, "Nice try Detectives...this may prove whoever was there was fakin the shoeprint, but it doesn´t mean we did it. All you have is, like I said, circumstancial. I bet you don´t even have enough for a warrant?" Detective Goren didn´t answer, his face showed no emotion. Bobby laughed and the Detectives and walked away, I didn´t even look at them before following him. They had nothing. We were free. We walked back to the elevators, took them downstairs, crossed the street and went back home. We had just gotten away with murder. 


	10. Going back

DISCLAIMER: Not mine, please don´t do anything nasty to me for taking them.  
  
A/N: Finally!! Not just an update but finished!!! I want to thank (again) all of the people who reviewed, it was great. I was surprised to find such good comments and I really, really, really appreciate it. I will say no more and let all of you get on with the reading. Thanks a lot!  
  
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It was another week later and there was still nothing new about the murders in the news. I started to worry, but my life was just to hectic, I needed to prioritize and murder cases which no longer involved me were at the bottom of the list. I needed to get Ty enrolled in school (there was no telling how long my father would be gone) and for that I needed his papers. He hadn´t attended school for the last six months and that put him behind practically an entire year. He didn´t deserve that so I was looking for a school which would take him without putting him behind. It was not going well, most schools wouldn´t even hear of it.  
  
There was also the matter of all of Ty´s things. After he´d worn the same clothes for three consecutive days I needed to go and get him some more. It wasn´t much, but it was enough and he didn´t seem too upset about it. I also cleared out the extra room in my appartment which I had used as storage. A lot of crap came out, but after two days it was all gone. Ty slept on the only bed at the moment, I had dragged the couch to my bedroom and it was permanently folded out. When we watched t.v. we sat on big cushions on the floor. Sharing the bathroom was hellish, we always fought about who got to take showers when.  
  
I also needed to take him to work with me. He said he could stay on his own, but I didn´t want to risk it. I wanted him to be a normal boy again and that included not staying alone all day at an empty appartment. I also took him into my volounteering job. He didn´t get too bored there, he was usefull for organizing bed pans and lunch orders and other such things. All the nurses took to him, well, almost... The charge nurse refused to accept him and he had to hide everytime she was around. I was exhausted and needed more money. I considered quitting the voulenteering job to get a paying job, but Ty begged me not to. He said he had fun, and I couldn´t say no to him. Instead I went and did something I should have done a long time ago. I asked for a teaching possision, a real one, not a teacher´s assistant. I was surprised when I was assigned three classes and my pay check almost tripled. It still wasn´t much, but it was better than almost below minimum wage.  
  
So one week went by, then two, then three. It had been a month before I remembered the murders. I was organizing some books when I found my old notebook. It all came back to me in a second and I suddenly felt guilty for not keeping in touch. I didn´t even know why, I just did. I picked up the phone and dialed the number. I was amazed I still remembered it. It rang once, twice, three, four, five, six times. I was just about to hang up when someone picked up. It was neither Eames nor Goren. From what I gathered from the very short conversation I had with the person on the other side, neither of the detectives were available and would not be for several hours. The person asked if I wanted to leave a message, but I said no, I´d call back later. It was a stupid remark, because I knew I never would.  
  
After this my life seemed to settle down a bit. I finally got some time to think about the murders. Since I wasn´t about to call the police station again, I decided to keep an eye out for Goren. I had been so busy the past month that I hadn´t really noticed if he´d been in or not, he probably was, he never missed his weekely visit, but I hadn´t seen him. I started hanging around the front desk more, taking longer with the patience in the same hall as Mrs. Goren, I even asked the nurses if they´d seen Goren. I always got the same confused looks, they wondered why in the hell I´d want to talk to -that- man; in any case all they ever did was shrug their shoulders and say they hadn´t seen him, then walk away quickly, probably to gossip about the reason why I´d be looking for Goren. Ty started asking about why I was always looking for him, I told him I had to talk to him and Ty simply accepted it and moved on. I wondered why the rest of the staff couldn´t just do that. Why must humans always gossip? Is it to undermine others so that our own faults don´t seem to great? Maybe it´s because we need to fill our empty lives with something that seems greater than ourselves...maybe we´re just a bunch of idiots with nothing better to do. I didn´t care, I didn´t see Goren and Mrs. Goren, I noticed, avoided the subject of her son around me very carefully. I got the feeling he´d told her about the murders and my involvment, but I couldn´t find out any more than that, trying to get that woman to talk was like trying to get the wall to pick up and move.  
  
I still didn´t give up, but while I was trying to track down Goren something else happened, Ty followed me one day to Mrs. Goren´s room and they got to talking. He said he liked her, and she seemed to take to him too. Whenever she had a good day she´d ask me if I could bring him over, she would sit him on her bed and would pull out book upon book from the various stacks she kept in her room. She would pace around the room or sit in the chair her son usually occupied. Sometimes she´d even take him out to the hall and walk with him. Years later he would always boast about how he was shaped by a half-sister he´d never known and who´d run away at age 16 and a crazy old woman who must´ve once been normal.  
  
I soon decided Goren had to be avoiding me, or had to be avoiding something to do with me. His mother kept saying he was well but I didn´t believe her, she always looked down and then out the window whenever she said it, a clear sign she was lying. Yet another month slowly crawled by and I found myself now more annoyed at the fact that I had yet to contact Goren. A voice in my head told me to call the police station, but my pride refused to give in, I would not chase this man down to the ends of the earth! I was thinking just that one day when I suddenly turned a corner and bumped into someone. At first, it felt like I´d run into a wall, but I soon looked up from the floor in my less than gracefull state and saw the man I´d been looking for. I saw Goren. Ever the gentleman, he helped me up and apologized, even though he´d done nothing wrong. He didn´t avoid my eyes, but there was something elusive about his manner none the less. After a few seconds of silence I couldn´t take it anymore.  
  
"What happened Goren?"  
  
He looked at me, he knew what I meant. He stuck his hands in his pockets and took a deep breath. When he spoke, it was barely above a whisper, "They got away...they played us, the system...me."  
  
"I´m sure it wasn´t about you, Goren."  
  
He stared at me as if I was saying something incredibly obvious yet terribly difficult to grasp for him, he shrugged his shoulders a little and continued, "We had them, but it was all circumstancial. It never even got beyond the interrogation room...they were good, too good."  
I never asked who he was talking about. In truth, I didn´t know what to say. Somehow, I´d built this image in my head that Goren and Eames were never wrong, they always caught someone and it was always the right person. I knew how he felt and yet I couldn´t possibly understand it. Since I could find nothing to say, Goren jumped in.  
  
"My mother says Tyler is a very bright boy."  
  
I smiled, "Yeah I know...he´s great."  
  
"Are you trying for custody?"  
  
I was caught by surprise, the man who gives no personal information seemed awfully curious about mine. I shrugged my shoulders, "I don´t know...my father´s a lost cause but to drag him into this...and Ty...I don´t think he can take much more. He cries himself to sleep almost every night, he misses his parents, but he also understands he can never relly on them, he´ll never belong to a normal family."  
  
"He´ll survive, the smart ones always do...if you need any help I know some people who can..."  
  
I interrupted him, "Thanks, I think we´ll be fine, I think we need some time to figure things out, but we´ll be OK."  
  
He nodded and leaned against the wall, I was starting to think he was going to drop the subject. I was wrong, "How about school? Is he...going anywhere?"  
  
I couldn´t help but laugh. He seemed a little surprised but recovered quickly, "No school will take him without putting him back a year. He doesn´t want that, he´s worried the other kids will think he´s stupid, or that they´ll find out about his father...I can´t blame him. After my mother died, I didn´t want people finding out about him either. It´s embarassing, it makes you feel...different, like you don´t belong."  
  
"Your mother died? I...didn´t know."  
  
I rolled my eyes at him, but continued, "I was twelve. My father was passed out drunk on the couch. My mother was a coroner, she was carrying a set of scalpels when she fell down the stairs, pierced her liver...my father was not ten feet away and he never noticed...before that we were pretty normal, my father used to love his job, and my mother hers, we were...a good family. I don't want Ty to look back on his life and have only bad memories and difficulties. He deserves a chance to be normal."  
  
"Everybody does."  
  
"I guess they were right then...," Goren straightened up and looked at me, I knew he understood what I meant. The killers, they´d been right. It was a hard thing to accept, but in the end, they´d proven an awfull truth, "Anyone can be anything...", he said nothing. He only looked at me, he didn't even blink. I turned away after a few seconds, I wasn´t intimidated. But for what I would say next, I was afraid to look him in the eye, "Is that what bothers you? About the murders...that they were right?"  
  
I gathered all my courage and looked back at him. There was no emotion in his eyes but I knew he was hiding it all. Only another single second passed before he simply walked away. I followed him with my eyes. His mother was walking down the hall, towards us. She was reciting something from some long-forgotten book, Ty walked next to her, stumbling thru the quote. Mrs. Goren did not stop quoting for her son and it was only when she was done that she greeted him. She smiled at him and send him to wait in her room. He obeyed after saying hello to Ty. Goren never looked back at me. Mrs. Goren smiled weakly at me and I returned it with one of my own. Mrs. Goren turned back and began on another quote, Ty followed her, this time he stumbled much less. I watched them go for a few seconds before turning back, Mrs. Mills still needed her lunch and life had not stopped for a second. I turned back to my life, it was all I could do.  
  
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Well, don´t kill me because of the ending! I know it´s not conventional or traditional or anything of the sort but I like this sort of fatalist quality that life can sometimes have. It keeps all of us on our toes. Despite that though, I am thinking about sort of a sequel (in which I will take up issues I left flying in the air here), I´m not sure yet, and if it comes it´ll be at least three more weeks before I start on it...anyways, I´ll just shut up now and let you all continue with your lives. Thanks for reading this far! -Rata- 


End file.
